Hi Alicat, You can indeed grow a sweet potato from the slips of another sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are not grown from seeds like most vegetables. However, store-bought sweet potatoes are often waxed to prevent sprouting. Do you have a friend who grows garden sweet potatoes? Or, you could reach out to a gardening group to find a gardener who grows sweet potatoes. If not, you need to go to your local nursery and inquire. And yes, the leaves are edible! They contain high dietary fiber, too.
Shoots will sprout, and when they reach 6 to 9 inches long, cut them off the root. Remove and dispose of the bottom inch from each slip, as that portion sometimes harbors disease organisms. Plant in full sun three to four weeks after the last frost when the soil has warmed. Make holes 6 inches deep and 12 inches apart. Bury slips up to the top leaves, press the soil down gently but firmly, and water well. For sweet potatoes to grow well, they do need soil with plenty of organic matter for food.
Work in plenty of compost which you can make. A foot row will produce 8 to 10 pounds of potatoes. I did not see the leaves turn green. Could be soil be the issue becos I am not in the North, but planted at the half a plot of my residence. Grateful advuse. They like a sunny spot with loamy, well-drained soil. If your soil is clay, rocky, or compacted, consider raised beds.
I told my wife I'm going to try cutting some vines that still have roots on them and put them in a bag and freeze them for next year. I wonder if they'll grow? What do you think? Sweet potato vines are tropical plants, which means that they cannot withstand cold temperatures for long. Because of this, freezing the vines will kill them, unfortunately! It is early August in Northern Texas, and my sweet potato plant has large, healthy leaves and vines growing along the fence out of a small box in the backyard.
However, I will be moving several hours South by car and will either have to transplant my plant in the car and replant it in our new home, or harvest them soon. Which is my best bet? Just checking. Can you take the plant with you, with the box and vines intact? If not, you can dig around in the box and see how big the roots are and decide then whether to take it altogether or harvest what you find. My question is, can sweet potatoes be planted this way as well? The idea of using old tires as planters is not something we can get behind recommend , Sure, some sources suggest that they are safe short term biodegradation being a long term process and they are harmful if they have been burned or are shredded for use.
It just seems that there are so many things that can be used as containers why get tires involved. I read that vulcanised rubber contains high levels of heavy metals and other toxic compounds. I don't know whether they would definitely leach into soil and plants but I would avoid using tires for growing anything.
We planted sweet potato slips and half of them were eaten, rabbits. A few of the nibbled vines still had a slight green slip poking out of the ground.
Will the slips die or continue to grow? Try to protect the remaining slip; cover them carefully with screening or something like but closer woven than chicken wire. The slips might make it. I've had this potato patch for over a year.
I decided to dig it up today. March 30, They are really small, very hard and white. What are these? I'm new at this. I halved a sweet potato and placed the exposed surface in a glass with water. They sprouted beautiful leafy green stems! The stems are bushy and maybe 6 inches long now. Did I wait too long to plant them in the soil? If I twist them off, I fear breaking the stem and roots. Can't I just carefully slice around each stem and try to not disturb the roots- planting the slip with a margin of original potato around it?
I harvested my first crop of back yard sweet potatoes today, Houston area. Late harvest, I know. They have been in since May and it is been too wet. Some of the sweets looked like they have ridges, other look bit.
I saw grubs in my bed and will take steps to treat them. My question - what do I do with the damaged potatoes? If I can remove the portion of the potato with the damage, are they safe to eat or cure for slips for next year? If these were our sweets we would cut out the damaged area and proceed as normal—eating them or slipping them. I cut a sweet potato from last year's crop and suspended both halves in a jar of water.
Each half produced a number of slips; in total. I planted the slips in our community garden and had a great harvest. The original potato halves were left outside in water throughout the summer. They made it through to the fall when one was eaten by a chipmunk. I took the second one inside, cut the bottom off of it, and placed it back in water.
It immediately began producing roots and slips are starting to sprout. Can I expect this potato to continue producing slips? For tips from our Gardening reviewer on how to harvest your yams, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers.
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We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Start growing the sprouts. Yams aren't grown from seeds like most other vegetables - they grow from slips, which are derived from the sprouts of adult yams. To grow sprouts, cut a yam in half and submerge one portion in a glass of cool water.
Insert toothpicks at three points around the middle of the yam and suspend it over the container, half-submerged in the water. If you notice discoloration or lesions on the skin, your yam could be diseased, which means its sprouts could be diseased, too.
Keep the sprouts warm. The growth process requires warmth, so place the glass near a heat source. If possible, position the glass near a window so that the sprouting yam gets sunlight as well. Otherwise, place it near a heater to absorb warmth that way. Let sprouts develop. Refill the water in jars or glasses if necessary to keep the submersion level of the yam consistent. Wait for sprouts to form on the yam; this will take a few weeks.
Once sprouts are leafy, take each one and gently twist it off of the yam. Root the slips. Lay each sprout in a shallow container, with the bottom half of the stem submerged in water. Allow the leaves to hang out over the rim of the container. Over the course of a few days, you should see roots emerging from the bottom of each sprout. When the roots are about an inch long, they are then slips that are ready to be planted.
Method 2. Loosen the soil. To ensure that the roots don't meet resistance as they expand, make sure that the soil is very loose and well-drained where you want to plant the yams. When the ground starts to dry in the springtime, till the soil approximately 8 to 12 inches deep and remove debris i.
Spread compost or manure over the soil and till it approximately 8 inches into the ground, to improve the soil's structure. Rake the area, spray it with water, and let it sit for 2 or 3 days before planting. Make space. Ensure that you have enough room to accommodate the slips that you'll be planting. Large tubers need a lot of space to grow, as do the vines of the plants, which grow vigorously. Ideally, you should leave approximately a meter of space between each plant.
Wait for the right temperature. Yams do not grow well in cold temperatures, so it's best to wait until a few weeks after the last frost to plant your slips. Mid spring is the ideal time to do so. Yams require a long growing season, so don't wait too long into the spring or summer to get started. Bury the slips into the soil. Dig holes about 4" or 5" deep and 3" wide approximately 10 or 12 cm deep and cm wide.
Place slips in the holes dug about 8 to 10 inches apart , positioned with the roots pointing down and the leafy tops above the soil. Very gently fill the holes with soil, being careful not to jostle or bruise the slips too much. Method 3. Water the plants generously. My biggest problem is grubs attacking the crop before harvesting, birds and grubs. Any ideas. Hi George, the reason for not planting until October is because yams are frost tender, planting later ensures the risk of frost has passed.
I am not sure what grubs you may be referring to, possibly nematodes, wire worm, army worm or beetle grubs. The easiest way to prevent nematodes and wire worm is to rotate crops and not grow root crops such as carrots, yams or potatoes in the same part of the garden each year.
In autumn plant a green crop such as mustard and dig that into the soil in late winter, early spring August.
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